Adams latest mayor to tackle NYC's 400 miles of scaffolding

Adams latest mayor to tackle NYC’s 400 miles of scaffolding with ‘get sheds down’ plan

July 24, 2023

New York City officials have a plan to remove sidewalks sheds and scaffolding from city streets. Mayor Eric Adams and Department of Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo on Monday revealed “Get Sheds Down,” a comprehensive overhaul of the city’s scaffolding policies that aim to hastily remove longstanding sidewalk sheds and redesign them to be less intrusive using alternatives like safety netting. Under the new policy, property owners will face bigger fines if their sidewalk sheds occupy space for too long.

New York City has roughly 9,000 legally-permitted sidewalk sheds in operation with an average lifetime of 500 days, taking up nearly 400 miles, or three percent, of the city’s sidewalk space. City officials have attempted to remedy this issue for years, but the problem persists. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio focused on removing sidewalk sheds at public housing developments and at non-active construction sites; in 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg pushed for new, innovative designs for the structures.

The growing number of sidewalk sheds can be attributed to policies that have governed the use of scaffolding for years. Property owners are more incentivized to keep up scaffolding for long periods of time instead of completing the facade work they were put up to protect from in the first place. Under the current policy, property owners can delay building repairs as many times as they please, keeping sheds on sidewalks for years on end without having to pay the city a single dollar in financial penalties.

“We have nearly 400 miles of scaffolding in New York City, taking up public space that belongs to New Yorkers and the millions who visit our city every year. Imagine visiting Rome, Tokyo, or Rio and seeing scaffolding everywhere,” Adams said.

“New Yorkers wouldn’t be happy with these unsightly constructions in other cities, and we shouldn’t be ok with them here at home. For too long, bureaucratic rules have stood in the way of progress, but today, we are turning the page and overhauling these rules from the ground up with our ‘Get Sheds Down’ plan.”

Currently, smaller buildings not subject to the rules of Local Law 11 can renew their scaffolding permits every year, effectively keeping their sheds on city streets as long as they want. At the same time, bigger buildings that have to adhere to Local Law 11 can apply for repeated permit extensions, allowing them to extend the time of facade repairs and avoid penalties. Adams’ plan will instead incentivize property owners to expedite repair processes and remove sheds with expired licenses from the streets.

As part of the plan, the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services will pilot the use of safety netting instead of traditional scaffolding for ongoing construction work on the Queens County Supreme Court building in Jamaica, Queens. The sidewalk shed currently erected at this site was first built on April 21, 2017, more than six years ago. Under the guidelines of the mayor’s plan, all city agencies will be required to explore the use of safety netting for construction projects on a city-owned building.

While safety netting has been used on construction sites around the city, it has been rarely used due to the lack of a standardized design. To expand the use of safety netting, the city will post a clear set of rules pertaining to the use of net, and work with design professionals and property owners to clarify design requirements.

To create better sidewalk sheds, DOB will issue a public request for proposals by the end of summer 2023 to experts from the fields of architecture and engineering. The agency will then select designs that are visually appealing, less obtrusive, affordable for property owners, and still protect New Yorkers from falling debris.

The Adams administration will work with Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine to create new monthly financial penalties for property owners who have had sidewalk sheds erected in the pedestrian’s right of way. These penalties would first be implemented 90 days after a shed is first permitted and issued every month until the shed is deconstructed. Penalties would be limited to $6,000 a month and have the possibility of being waived if property owners comply and expedite their repair work.

Property owners in the city’s Central Business Districts will face the harshest penalties if they fail to meet milestones in facade repairs. Under the mayor’s plan, property owners could face fines of up to $10,000 when they fail to meet milestones in the repair process, which includes filing repair applications, obtaining work permits, and fully completing repairs. This program will start in Midtown, Long Island City, Downtown Brooklyn, and Grand Concourse.

Protections will be in place for struggling property owners, such as low-interest loan programs to help them complete facade repairs in a timely manner.

“Across the city, there are examples of sidewalk sheds and scaffolding that have been up for years on end, a reflection of regulatory requirements that have not kept up with the times and building facades that are not being repaired quickly. The reforms the mayor is pursuing are an exciting step towards ensuring that sheds are up only as long as they need to be to keep New Yorkers safe,” Levine said.

In January 2022, a report by the Independent Budget Office found that the number of sidewalk sheds across the five boroughs had tripled over the past two decades. At the time, Manhattan led the city in the highest number of scaffolding, but data showed that the outer boroughs were starting to catch up, with Brooklyn’s quantity of sheds nearly doubling over the past two decades.

DOB currently offers an interactive map of the city’s active sidewalk shed permits, which can be viewed here.

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